GENEVA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Bern's Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday opened the second part of an extraordinary exhibition in the Swiss capital showing art stolen under the Nazi regime.
"This selection comprises pieces that were seized by the Nazis in their persecution campaigns as well as artworks whose provenance and circumstances of acquisition still cannot be conclusively ascertained today," said the museum.
"Nazi Art Theft and its Consequences" traces the Nazi looting of European Jews and explains the role of art dealers and museums in the expropriation campaigns of the regime that ruled Germany in the 1930s and 1940s until the end of World War II.
The show is made up of works from a mass collection of masterpieces discovered after a chance raid on the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of a Nazi art dealer.
Hildebrand Gurlitt was involved in forced sales and dealt with artworks that were either stolen or confiscated from museums as "degenerate art."
The works bequeathed provide a direct link to the biographies of his contemporaries who were persecuted by the Nazis.
Most of the former owners were Jewish artists, collectors, and art dealers.
The priceless treasure trove of thousands of pieces was uncovered by tax authorities in Gurlitt's small flat in Munich, Germany in 2012.
Cornelius Gurlitt had inherited the tainted collection from his father and had been living off the profits by quietly selling individual pieces.
When Gurlitt died in 2014, he left the entire collection to the Bern Museum of Fine Arts, in a move that took the institution completely by surprise, Swissinfo, the website of the Swiss national broadcaster reported.
Last year in Bern, the Museum of Fine Arts ran an exhibition focusing on pieces that were labeled by the Nazi regime as "degenerate art."
This has now moved to Bonn in Germany and Bonn's original exhibition, focusing on Nazi art theft, is now in Bern.
This second part of the exhibition, "Gurlitt Status report part 2" investigates the role played by Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius' father.
Despite being Jewish on his mother's side, he became an art dealer to the Nazis and was even commissioned to purchase pieces for Hitler's 'Fuhrermuseum' (an art museum complex that was never built).
The artists featured include Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, and Otto Dix.
